.j.-SgrtUalijiyi 
Agriculture 
TERMS, $3.00 PER YEAR.] 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
[SINGLE NO. TEN CENTS 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, OCT. 28,18G7 
I WHOLE NO. 027 
ESTABLISHED IN 1850 
to be fed, it should be mixed and cooked with 
the hay. It is also advantageous to mix straw 
with the hay; even that of beans and peas is of 
great value when mixed and cooked with hay. 
It is also of great value to the manure, as it is 
ready for immediate use. My rule is to use two 
quarts of bran or middlings, to a bushel of straw, 
and think it is then as valuable as good hay. Yet 
I have sold hay for the cost of middlings in Buf¬ 
falo. CTliis made the straw feed equivalent to 
$35 a ton. I estimate two quarts of middlings 
equal to oue quart of Indian meal for fattening 
animals. For stock not fattening, bran is of 
equal'valtje of meal. It contains 18 per cent of 
gluten, and that makes tlesb. Meal contains 11 
or 12 per cent, of gluten. Bran mixed with straw 
and Steamed, makes the coat of animals as smooth 
as good pasture. It is the best food that can be 
given to a horse with a cough. 
One man can do all the work of caring tor 50 
Dcad.;„The hay or straw is'cut into a six-bushel ; 
basket, and sprinkled and mixed with meal or 
bran. If there iB any odor in any portion of the 
mass It la diffused by the steam. That of beau 
and pea straw appears to he agreeable to cattle. 
It can be steamed In a wooden box with iron bot¬ 
tom, set on an arch, but Vfe 1 o s e' b o i 1 cF "i s' mo at 
economical. 
In'auswerJAo a question about steamed food 
for sheep," Mr. Stf.wa.kt said that he put up 
twenty-five sheep on experiment. The first 
day they would not, eat the food. The second 
day they would eat a little. Thu third day they 
took hold heartily, and afterward ate greedily, 
and 1 found by weighing that they gained rapidly. 
Uko. Gbddes, Onondaga County: There is no 
branch of farming that haB been more fully proved 
than that it is valuable to cook food for stock. I 
satisfied myself years ago, by actual experiment, 
that cooked food was worth double; but people 
waut more experiments. 
Geo. a. Moore, Buffalo: 1 have one or two 
facts worth knowing. I fed sheep in the ordi¬ 
nary way, anti found it dill not pay—they gained 
but little in weight. Then 1 fed cooked food, 
and iu a short time their weight was doubled. 
But they gained so fast that the butcher com¬ 
plained of the fat being soft. I believe that 
steamed food will give three pounds of fat on 
sheep to one from ruw food. I always cook 
food at night for breakfast, and then for dinner 
and supper, so that it remains in the feed-boxes 
a little warm. They soon learn to like warm 
AX ORIGINAL WKKKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
mgL 
aSv,.>.4( 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors 
to Prof. Dewey of this city—one of the best 
authorities in the couutry on grasses—and ho 
makes the following remarks. Our engraving 
represents very accurately the appearance of tho 
roots, leaves, stem and head of the plant: 
“The sedge-grass, from J. B. Tuihits, Esq., is 
Ctyperw t phymatodesy named and described by 
Muhlenberg In Pennsylvania, common at the 
South, and nourishes in Vermont, New York, 
Michigan, Illinois, but Is not often very trouble¬ 
some. It propagates by its seed, creeping root- 
stalks and small tubers (abscess-like, from which 
iB the specific name,) along or at the end of 
small roots. It delights in rather wet and low 
rich places, and prospers under cultivation. Tho 
tubers are rather too small, rarely one-fourth 
inch in diameter, to give it the name Potato-weed, 
as called by Mr. Tib hits. It can, probably, be 
destroyed by burning the roots, plants and seed. 
It will not be n dangerous effort.” 
Hon. HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. P., Editor of the De- 
parturient of Sheep Husbandry. 
Hon. T. C. PETERS, late President N. Y. State Ag’l 
Society, Southern Corresponding Editor. 
GLEZEN F. WILCOX, Associate Editor. 
Thk Rural Nkw-Yorkkr la detdened to he unsur¬ 
passed in Vnlne, Pnrlty, and Variety of Contents. Its 
Conductor earnestly labors to render the Rrit m, a Reli¬ 
able Gnldu on all the important Praetioal, Srlontlflc and 
other Subjects connected with the business of those 
whose Interest* It zealously advocates. A* a Family 
Journal It is eminently Instructive and Entertaining— 
being so conducted that it uan he safely taken to tho 
Homes of people of Intelligence, taste and discrimination. 
It embraces more Agricultural. Horticultural,Scientific, 
Educational, Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
with appropriate engravings, than any other Journal,— 
rendering it by far the most complete Agricultural, 
Literary and Family Newspaper in America. 
tar-F or Terms And other particulars see last page, 
ADVICE TO THOSE WHO DON’T NEED IT, 
Always leave your tools where you use them. 
Then tho next time you want them you have 
only to remember where you used them lust, and 
go and get them. In this way you may avoid 
the annoyance of lending. A man who wants to 
borrow a plow is not half so likely to call upon 
a neighbor who generally loaves it in the back 
field as one who keeps it in the baru clean and 
bright. 
Never paint your out buildings or farm tools. 
It iB wicked; anybody knows that it will make 
them last twice as long, and that is robbing me¬ 
chanics of their bread. “ Lot every man live by 
his trade.” 
Always plant your smallest potatoes, (and rot¬ 
ten ones if you have any.) Eat the best and you 
are sure of them. If you plant them you run a 
risk. Bugs and rot may destroy them. One 
potato on the plate is worth a half dozen in the 
ground where you have to dig lor them. 
Do not stable your cattle. It makes a great 
deal of extra work and don’t do any good. They 
are dumb brutes. How do they know whether 
it is cold or warm ? Stuck some hay out iu the 
middle of ft field—(if you have some damaged all 
the better.) It will make an excellent place to 
winter tin; sheep and calves. Feed them on the 
ground and save hauling the manure. If some 
of the Bheep happen to die, pull off the wool and 
feel thankful that you have so many less to wash 
and shear in the hurry of summer. 
Borne short-sighted people heap their manure 
to make it rot. Tills Is the height of folly. Let 
it alone three or Jour years and It will rot itself. 
If there is bo ranch manure in the yard that tho 
cattle can’t wade through it, get some rails and 
fence off a yard on the Other side of the barn. If 
It accumulates so as to make it difficult, for you 
to get to the barn, sell out, or move the barn. 
Don’t waste your money and time by tryiug 
to raise fruit trees. It requires an immense 
amount of labor to prune and fight the worms 
and mice; and then if they grow and bear fruit 
bad boys may steal it; you can save a great deal 
of annoyance by not planting any. Better spend 
your money for tobacco aiulyour time smoking it. 
Above all do not squander your money for 
books and newspapers. No matter how much 
weak-minded people talk about the moral influ¬ 
ence of good reading, the benefit of the experi¬ 
ence of practical farmers uud tho theories of 
scientific men and ail such nonsense, just give 
them to understand that you know what is what, 
and let those take the papers who have no mind 
of their owl J know u nice old farmer who 
never had a paper in his bouse till he was fifty 
years of age. His fattier left him two hundred 
acres of choice land which lie worked as well as 
ho knew how, ami made a comfortable living. One 
spring the Fostmaster told him if ho would sub¬ 
scribe for a good agricultural paper, read it care¬ 
fully and work according to instructions, he 
would warrant him to clear a thousand dollars 
that year. On these conditions he paid for the 
paper, read it, worked faithfully, and at the end 
of : r- ear he figured up carefully uud found he 
had cleared only nine hundred and sixty dollars. 
He sued the rascally Postmaster for the other 
forty, but by some dodge of the law the villain 
cheated him out of it. Ever since then the old 
geut has been down on Postmasters and news¬ 
papers. G. W. Cone. 
Stanley Corners, N. Y., Sept., 18117. 
CUTTING AND STEAMING FODDER 
During the evening discussions at the State 
Fair this subject was briefly considered. Mr. E. 
W. Stewart, North Evans, Erie Co., N. Y., in 
openiug the discussion, remarked: 
It is unnatural for cattle to feed upon dry hay 
or straw; naturally they cut green, succulent, 
Boft food, which needs much less mastication 
than any of our winter fodder. We have sub¬ 
jected animals to an unnatural condition. So it 
is not opposing but assisting uature not only to 
cut the dry hay, stalks and straw into a fine con¬ 
dition, but also to cook it into a soft pulp, to re¬ 
semble the grass they cat while in their natural 
state. 1 think the finer we cut their food the 
better. We need better machines than we have 
—some that will not only cut but mush the fiber. 
All horse-leeders have discovered the advantage 
of feeding cut food, In the time saved, as well as 
saving of substance. “ But,” say some farmers, 
“ the cows have plenty of time, let them use it 
to chew their food.” Is not that exercise of 
masticating hard, dry hay and straw au expendi¬ 
ture of force ? and that comes of food, and con¬ 
sequently requires more. With fatting animals, 
we know that they gain faster when we save that 
labor. See how much force a cow must expend 
to reduce to pulp 80 pounds of hay a day. My 
experiments have proved that all that 1 do to¬ 
ward reducing their feed to the condition needed 
for assimilation in the animal’s stomach is a sav¬ 
ing of quantity, and the quality being improved, 
it improves the animal faster and better than 
dry, uncut food. Beside this, everything is 
eaten and saved. 
I find that with a two-horse power machine I 
can cut timothy hay one-fourth of an inch long, 
and feed it almost as easily as I can handle it 
whole and feed in racks. If I had a suitable 
machine I would make the hay much finer, so 
as to imitate nature, in giving food that does 
not require much labor of mastication. The ob¬ 
ject is to render it most easy for the animal to 
assimilate the food, not that reducing it so fine 
adds anything to it. Starch is found in ail 
woody fiber, and as that will not dissolve in 
cold water, it needs cooking in water at 200° to 
212° of Fahrenheit. A portion of the starch, hut 
only a portion, is dissolved at 140° of heat, and 
therefore the animal’s stomach eauuot assimi¬ 
late all the starch in hay, straw aud grain, which 
contains 00 per cent, of its weight of starch, 
which is higldy nutritive, but most so when 
cooked. By high pressure steam, aud soda ash, 
the straw of our cereals is dissolved aud mude 
into a soft pulp. I believe two bushels of steam¬ 
ed hay of more value than three bushels that is 
not cooked. It is an important item to save 
33% per cent, of cattle feed, which can be done 
by cutting aud cooking all our hay and straw. 
To those who intend to adopt the system of 
steaming hay, this fact is truly important. It 
cannot be steamed dry. About two gallons of 
water^must be spriukled upon every five bushels 
of cut hay. Water absorbs the steam and soft¬ 
ens the hay. If the steam is applied to dry hay, 
it will dry it so it will not be eaten readily by 
cattle. If the steam is applied at high pressure, 
the dry hay will be partially charred. If meal is 
S RDGK - GRASS — (Cyperus phymatodes.) 
mlttlng them to fly. Early the next morning 
blow a little smoke into the hive or rap on it; 
by this means when they tly out, supposing they 
have been removed, they will be eureful to take 
a new reckoning and all return to the hive; 
otherwise those moved from another stand, and 
united iu the uew one, will return and be lost.” 
Some apiarians advocate the practice of win¬ 
tering bees in cellars or other dark inclosures, 
as being safer for them, while their keeping Is, 
in consequence of tills seclusion, less expensive 
than when light anil liberty are accorded them. 
Others dissent from this view, urging that such 
cOHttncment weakens the bees, rendering them 
less able to work when coming out—hence no 
saving is secured. If the hives are suitably 
sheltered from the driving storms and extreme 
cold of winter, it would seem unnecessary t.o 
entomb them in cellars or elsewhere. During 
warm spells in winter we have known bees take 
a wide range, showing that confinement was irk¬ 
some. Some of them are undoubtedly lost in 
these excursions, but the number is generally 
insignificant aud is supposed to find compen¬ 
sation in the superior hcaltlifulness of those 
which remain. This, however, la a point upon 
which the most experienced apairiana ure at 
variance, hence amateurs must weigh the argu¬ 
ments on each side and act as the preponder¬ 
ance of evidence shall seem to dictate. 
anee, and vegetation looks as though it was 
afraid to make a start, or seems to say “it’s no 
use.” Canada thistles, quack grass and arti¬ 
chokes stand “no where” in comparison to it. 
It is a perfect nuisance in every sense of the 
word. You may hoe it all summer, aud the 
next spring it makes its appearance with as 
much nonchalance as though it ranked itself 
among the “ hoed crops.” During the dry sum¬ 
mer of 1 sill I hoed ft'patch of it in my garden 
once or twice a week, for I don’t know how 
many weeks, until I finally threw down my hoe 
in disgust and resolved to hoe no more where 
hoeing was of no avail. 1 then took to mowing 
it, aud 1 can’t tell how many crops I mowed and 
left on the ground. When fall came 1 made up 
my mind that the bent sod was on that part that 1 
hoed the most. 
1 know of neither beast nor bird that makes 
any use of this grass whatever, and even the 
destructive cut-worm passes by It with disdain. 
It Is true that after the ground is plowed, hens 
will scratch it over, but whether they do it for 
spite or sport I have never been able to deter¬ 
mine. Although It grows and flourishes upon 
the identical soil where modern spiritualism first 
burst upon a not over-credulous community, 1 
can assure you, it is no humbug. Frequently on 
cutting open a potato for planting in the spring 
we Uud ouc of these little balls firmly imbedded 
in its very center, ready to spring up and spread 
consternation and back-aehc to the unfortunate 
owner of tho potato patch. [ Speaking of 
hens 1 wish you would tell “ Yorick” that 1 
want one of bis chickens. I want a cross be¬ 
tween the scratchCr aud eater. If he can furnish 
me with one that will answer my purpose he can 
“retire,” for his fortune iB made. | 
Now, I don’t think that T can reasonably ask i 
you or “any other man” to tell me how to rid 
myself of this pest, for 1 believe that Is a thing 
that isn’t known. But what I should «.e to 
know ia, whether science has ever discovered its 
real name or oriyin ? — whether it originated 
where a certain official thought the potato plant 
did, (in the slate of Pennsylvania,) or whether 
Baron Von Humboldt found it upon some tot¬ 
tering peak of the lofty Amies, or whether 
Joan Charles Fremont brought it from that 
airy height where he caught the wandering hum- 
BEES.—FALL AND WINTER MANAGEMENT 
The honey season is rapidly approaching a 
close. It is true bees will work as long ag 
honey can he obtained, he the amount ever so 
small. But the stormy weather of November 
confines them at home most of the time, and 
whether they have been provident. In laying up 
stores or otherwise is a matter of much interest 
to the apiarian. If an examination discloses weak 
colonies, poorly provisioned for the winter, and 
the owner is reluctant to destroy them, it is 
recommended to unite several colOffiuB in one, 
as they eat relatively less iu consequence of the 
increased heat engendered by a large body of 
bees as compared with a small one. By this 
union of swarms there is a double saving—that 
of the bees themselves, probably, and in the 
decreased amount of honey necessary to carry 
them through. Such combinations are frequent¬ 
ly made, we believe, where movable comb hlvCB 
are used, greatly to the advantage of the colo¬ 
nies themselves, as well as to their owners. The 
process by which these unions are made is thus 
sketched by ILarrison, iu his treatise on Bee- 
Keeping “ Open the hives, blow smoke freely 
into each of them, which serves to scent all alike 
to prevent lighting, as weU as to render them 
docile while operating upon them. Proceed 
then to put the combs, bees aud all, into ouo 
hive, by lifting out the combs, with the bees ad¬ 
hering to them, setting aside such as contain 
the least honey, Should the combs be new, 
and the frames hut partially filled, it is well to 
exchange some of them for frames containing 
older and larger combs, from some strong col¬ 
ony which can best spare them. If the ex¬ 
change is made, any bees adhering to the combs 
should be brushed off into their own hive, aud 
not be transferred with the comb to a new one. 
When the operation is completed and the amal¬ 
gamation formed, all straggling bees should be 
gathered into one hive and shut, up, ventilating 
properly. It should be kept closed till suuset 
the next day, when it should be opened, and 
closed the next morning before the bees com¬ 
mence flying. Open again in the evening, per- 
A PESTIFEROUS GRASS. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: — Inclosed I send 
you some samples of the greatest farm and gar¬ 
den pest, I think, that has ever yet been discov¬ 
ered. if I could make pictures I would send you 
a picture of it that you might show it to every¬ 
body. We call it potato yr<m. You want to be 
more careful of it than you would he of the Col¬ 
orado potato bug. If it escapes your hands and 
falls from your window on to tho solid pave¬ 
ment, the story will soon he told that grass 
grows iu the streets of Rochester. It comes 
irom the little ball or tuber which you see 
attached to the root of the plant. This makes it 
impossible to rid the earth of its obnoxious 
presence. It laughs at the hoe, and flourishes 
under the cultivator. Wherever it grows it 
gives the earth a yellow, sickly, bilious appear- 
